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story helps create understanding for people

As people we have one thing in common, we all have a story. In looking for inspiration for tonight’s post I typed thought-provoking questions into Google. And I am intrigued by a few of them. Not so much by the questions themselves but the brainstorming that came from them. I think why I am so passionate about this blog is not just because it offers others insights into a world of life with cerebral palsy. I am a lover of story, that being said I don’t overly enjoy reading. Up until grade 10 my mother read to me nightly and I still to this day make a habit of downloading both audio and eBooks’ from the library. Some of the fondest memories are the stories my grandmothers would share with me as a child. This love of learning about human-kind showed itself again when I was a volunteer and a co-op student in high school. As a co-op student I spent four out of five afternoons a week at a nursing home where I also happened to volunteer one evening a week. As a student, I was charged with the task of getting to know each resident’s background and enter it into the computer it was there later added to their personal record at the nursing home. In doing this it gave the very busy staff a chance to get to know the residence on a deeper level then often the time that they had would otherwise allow. People are fascinating to me and the people I have “met” through writing this blog are no exception to that!

I had no idea when I started this that it would grow to what it is becoming before my eyes. I began with the idea that I had a voice and I could use it to help others but I had no idea anyone would actually read it. Well, anyone but people who already knew me offline. – I mean who else would be interested in reading about me – seriously? The best thing I did in the early days of this blog was actually to not tell my offline world about it that way the only folks that found it found it on their own and I felt like they found it because they wanted to know my story. They therefore in my head were looking for someone from someone who understood cerebral palsy – and in a sense this is a service I could give. This strategy would well for me I didn’t tell my family about it until 2010 when this blog was named one of the top blogs on the internet about cerebral palsy since then I have only seen steady growth. The one thing I have realized as humble as I am about all of this, is that people do want to read about me about my story and about cerebral palsy. I am just one story, one life, and if I can share it with others and in the process help the many youth, children and adults of the world that too live with cerebral palsy. I enjoy helping others and based on the emails, tweets I receive all the time from the people that read this my words offer support and that is what I set out to do, it only feels natural to share my story and the blog felt like the right way to do this. Because of all of this, I feel fulfilled.

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About lifeofthedifferentlyabled

Laura Forde founded her blog through my eyes: my life with cerebral palsy in December 2009 out of a great need she had, realizing that there was a vast gap in firsthand accounts of what life was like living with Cerebral Palsy: she knew then that the only way to see this reflected online was to create the change herself and thus this blog was born Laura was born four months premature, weighing a mere one pound three ounces and given ten percent odds for survival. She was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at the age of three.
After graduating from college, she continued writing and doing what she loves to do most; speaking to groups about her life experiences and sharing what she has learned from her journey.
Her blog lifeofthedifferentlyabled was created after discovering that the online community lacked the voice of people in her situation.
In its first year, the site saw over 20,000 hits from all over the world. Her readers are from all walks of life; some with disabilities, parents of children, professionals, and others who seek to gain a better understanding of the world of the differently abled.
You can follow her on Twitter or Facebook